USS Merak (AF-21)
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USS Merak (AF-21)
USS ''Merak'' (AF-21), the second Navy ship of the name, was the United Fruit Company cargo and passenger liner ''Veragua'' that served as a United States Navy in World War II. ''Veragua'' was built for United Fruit's subsidiary United Mail Steamship Company by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Fore River Plant, Quincy, Massachusetts. The ship was one of six nearly identical ships with three each built by Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company and Bethlehem Shipbuilding. The ships were designed to take advantage of U.S. subsidies, including mail contracts, and designated by the line as its "Mail class" vessels to meet the company's primary purpose of refrigerated banana transport with passenger and mail being important sources of revenue. ''Veragua'', launched 23 April 1932 and delivered 5 August was one of three ships assigned to the company's Atlantic routes to Panama allowing an intercoastal connection with the three ships assigned to t ...
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United Fruit Company
The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 from the merger of the Boston Fruit Company with Minor C. Keith's banana-trading enterprises. It flourished in the early and mid-20th century, and it came to control vast territories and transportation networks in Central America, the Caribbean coast of Colombia and the West Indies. Although it competed with the Standard Fruit Company (later Dole Food Company) for dominance in the international banana trade, it maintained a virtual monopoly in certain regions, some of which came to be called banana republics – such as Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala. United Fruit had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism, and ...
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Quincy, Massachusetts
Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Greater Boston, Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 101,636, making it the seventh-largest city in the U.S. state, state. Known as the "City of Presidents", Quincy is the birthplace of two President of the United States, U.S. presidents—John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams—as well as John Hancock (a President of the Continental Congress and the first signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence) and the first and third Governor of Massachusetts. First settled in 1625, Quincy was briefly part of Dorchester, Boston, Dorchester before becoming the north precinct of Braintree, Massachusetts, Braintree in 1640. In 1792, Quincy was split off from Braintree; the new town was named after Colonel John Quincy, maternal grandfather of Abigail Adams and af ...
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Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean) and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, and north of South America. Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region has more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays (see the list of Caribbean islands). Island arcs delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea: The Greater Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago on the north and the Lesser Antilles and the on the south and east (which includes the Leeward Antilles). They form the West Indies with the nearby Lucayan Archipelago (the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands), which are considered to be part of the Caribbean despite not bordering the Caribbe ...
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Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean formed by the confluence of the Ashley, Cooper, and Wando rivers. Charleston had a population of 150,277 at the 2020 census. The 2020 population of the Charleston metropolitan area, comprising Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties, was 799,636 residents, the third-largest in the state and the 74th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States. Charleston was founded in 1670 as Charles Town, honoring King CharlesII, at Albemarle Point on the west bank of the Ashley River (now Charles Towne Landing) but relocated in 1680 to its present site, which became the fifth-largest city in North America within ten years. It remained unincorpor ...
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Shakedown Cruise
Shakedown cruise is a nautical term in which the performance of a ship is tested. Generally, shakedown cruises are performed before a ship enters service or after major changes such as a crew change, repair or overhaul. The shakedown cruise simulates working conditions for the vessel, for various reasons. For most new ships, the major reasons are to familiarise a crew with a new vessel and to ensure all of the ship's systems are functional. Overview If the ship is the first of its class, it will likely also be performing its sea trials, a test of its performance. In this context, 'shakedown cruise' and 'sea trials' may be used interchangeably, though each has a slightly different meaning. In such a case, it is likely that the ship's systems will be pushed to redline, or maximum capacity, to demonstrate the class's speed and other important traits. Until bested by another ship of the same class, this shakedown performance will be the standard of the class's capabilities, a ...
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Galveston, Texas
Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galveston County and second-largest municipality in the county. It is also within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area at its southern end on the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Galveston, or Galvez' town, was named after 18th-century Spanish military and political leader Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez (1746–1786), who was born in Macharaviaya, Málaga, in the Kingdom of Spain. Galveston's first European settlements on the Galveston Island were built around 1816 by French pirate Louis-Michel Aury to help the fledgling empire of Mexico fight for independence from Spain, along with other colonies in the Western Hemisphere of the Americas in Central and South America in the 1810s and 1820s. The Po ...
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Todd Pacific Shipyards
Vigor Shipyards is the current entity operating the former Todd Shipyards after its acquisition in 2011. Todd Shipyards was founded in 1916, which owned and operated shipyards on the West Coast of the United States, East Coast of the United States and the Gulf. Todd Shipyards were a major part of the Emergency Shipbuilding Program for World War II. Vigor Shipyards In February 2011, Vigor Industrial purchased Todd for US$130 million. This included the Seattle, Everett and Bremerton operations. Today, Vigor Shipyards is a government repair subsidiary of Vigor Industrial. Originally, the Coast Guard wanted to acquire 25 Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPC) and spend about $8 billion for them. In April 2013, it was reported that Vigor proposed an Ulstein X-bow hull in the design competition for the OPC vessels. If successful in landing the contract, Vigor would have assembled the vessels at its Portland, Ore., shipyard. However, in February 2014, the USCG announced that Bollinger Ship ...
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Samuel E
Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is Veneration, venerated as a prophet in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In addition to his role in the Hebrew scriptures, Samuel is mentioned in Jewish rabbinic literature, rabbinical literature, in the Christian New Testament, and in the second chapter of the Quran (although Islamic texts do not mention him by name). He is also treated in the fifth through seventh books of ''Antiquities of the Jews'', written by the Jewish scholar Josephus in the first century. He is first called "the Seer" in Books of Samuel, 1 Samuel 9:9. Biblical account Family Samuel's mother w ...
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Puerto Armuelles
Puerto Armuelles is a city and Corregimientos of Panama, corregimiento on Panama's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast in western Chiriquí Province adjacent to Costa Rica. It is the seat of the Barú District, Chiriquí, Barú District and the second-largest city in Chiriquí Province, Chiriqui Provinces of Panama, province with a population nearly 25,000. Puerto Armuelles has two different types of deep-water ports, one for Banana, bananas, and one for oil. Overview Puerto Armuelles is situated on the Pacific Ocean. Beginning in 1927, the town was built by United Fruit Company. The name, Puerto Armuelles, was given to the city in honor of one of the heroes of the Coto War, Colonel Tomás Armuelles. Colonel Armuelles was a member of the Panamanian Defense Forces. On March 18, 1921, he died in a train accident during the Coto War between Panama and Costa Rica. Puerto Armuelles had formerly been called "Rabo de Puerco" or "Pigtail". Puerto Armuelles is in the Chiriquí Province of Panama ...
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Balboa, Panama
Balboa is a district of Panama City, located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. History The town of Balboa, founded by the United States during the construction of the Panama Canal, was named after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the Spanish conquistador credited with discovering the Pacific Ocean. The name was suggested to the Canal Zone authorities by the Peruvian ambassador to Panama. Prior to being drained, filled and leveled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the hilly area north of Panama City was home to a few subsistence ranches and unused marshlands. The town of Balboa, like most towns in the Canal Zone, was served by Canal Zone Government–operated schools, post office, police and fire stations, commissary, cafeteria, movie theater, service center, bowling alley, and other recreational facilities and company stores. There were several schools in the area, including Balboa Elementary School, Balboa High School (Panama), Balboa High School, and the private St. ...
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Limón
Limón (), commonly known as Puerto Limón, is a district, the capital city and main hub of Limón province, as well as of the Limón canton in Costa Rica. It is the seventh largest city in Costa Rica, with a population of over 55,000, and is home of the Afro-Costa Rican community. Part of the community traces its roots to Italian, Jamaican and Chinese laborers who worked on a late nineteenth-century railroad project that connected San José to Puerto Limón. Until 1948, the Costa Rican government did not recognize Afro-Caribbean people as citizens and restricted their movement outside Limón province. As a result of this "travel ban", this Afro-Caribbean population became firmly established in the region, which influenced decisions not to move even after it was legally permitted. Nowadays, there is a significant outflow of Limón natives who move to the country's Central Valley in search for better employment and education. The Afro-Caribbean community speaks Spanish and Limones ...
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Cristóbal, Colón
Cristóbal is a port town and corregimiento in Colón District, Colón Province, Panama. The corregimiento has a population of 49,422 as of 2010. The town is located on the western edge of Manzanillo Island, on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. Cristóbal Colón is the Spanish translation for Christopher Columbus, the Genovese explorer for whom these places were named. Early history What came to be known as "Old Cristóbal," and today consists of the port of Cristóbal, was first built by the Panama Railroad Company in the 1850s at the time they dredged part of the of virgin swamp on Manzanillo Island to build their headquarters and port of arrival for railway travelers. In the 1880s, the French Inter-Oceanic Canal Company arrived to find the port of Colón (then Aspinwall) just a few streets wide and long while the rest of Manzanillo Island was still a swamp. They used soil from their canal excavation works to create a landfill on a coral reef adjacent to the Pana ...
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